William H. Edgerton, President
Ann S. Edgerton, Secretary-Treasurer
Kevin Kline, Esq, Director
Jim Krughoff, Director
Frank Metzger, Director
PO Box 1007, Darien, CT 06820 – (203) 857-0240
Mechanical Music relates to any device or instrument for the automatic playing of music including, but not limited to, musical boxes, orchestrions, fairground and street organs, crank organs, player pianos, reproducing pianos, phonographs, automata, and stringed, wind, and percussion instruments of any kind adapted to play automatically, whether driven by hand or by mechanical or electrical sources of power. This is synonymous with the term 'Automatic Musical Instrument.' It also includes the discs, cylinders, barrels, rolls, books, disks, and other means of providing a program for these instruments.
It is the mission of the Mechanical Music Library International, Inc. to collect, preserve, and make available for reference or dissemination the following items pertaining to mechanical music and mechanical musical instruments: books, pamphlets, journals, audio tapes, video tapes, CDs, DVDs, posters, catalogs, photographs, patents, postcards, correspondence, and other ephemera.
An IRS Section 501 (c) (3) designation was granted as of June 7, 2010, thus gifts and contributions to the Library are tax deductible.
A user may make a personal visit to the Library to view certain items or to browse on a specific subject, by prior arrangement. We will also respond to specific requests and will photocopy requested items if copyright regulations permit, for a modest contribution. No Library materials may be removed from the Library except in unusual circumstances and only after a loan agreement has been signed.
Contributions of materials that do not appear in our inventory are urgently requested, and financial contributions will be used to further our activities or to add to our endowment, as the donor wishes. All contributions will be acknowledged and the name of the contributor will forever be associated with his or her contribution. It is important for contributors to know that no individual associated in any way with the Library receives any compensation.
The names of prior contributors are listed here.
You may also browse the Mechanical Music Library’s offerings as an Excel spreadsheet. Click here to view the spreadsheet. (A program for viewing .xls files is required.) The spreadsheet may take a few moments to load; please be patient.
The Library catalog was last updated on October 28, 2023